Innisfil has moved one step closer to its goal of fleet decarbonization within 25 years.
Council approved a staff recommendation at its Feb. 12 meeting to proceed toward the electrification of its fleet while integrating renewable diesel and other fuel-efficient migration strategies. The direction will be essential in having the town meet the carbon reduction targets set out in its Integrated Sustainability Master Plan.
Currently, the town fleet accounts for about 34 per cent of corporate emissions.
“Specific to fleet, (decarbonization) means reducing the amount of carbon our fleet units produce and emit through tailpipe exhaust,” operations business analyst Katie Lockhart explained to councillors, as she and Rippan Bhattacharjee of GHD Limited walked council through the report recently.
From the outset, Lockhart said, staff was aware that operational changes could be implemented to make a difference, such as reducing idling, improving driver behaviour, and improving fuel vehicles to help reduce gas and diesel consumption.
But to really see changes, moving away from traditional gas and diesel fuels is essential, she said.
Beginning in 2023, electric vehicles, including SUVs and a new ice resurfacing machine, were added to the fleet. Staff noted growing pains, and GHD was brought in to help determine the best course of action to 2050.
GHD first examined the alternative fuel sources currently in use, including electricity, biodiesel, renewable diesel, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane. Electric, biodiesel, and renewable diesel are the most advanced technologies today, and these were the options suggested by the consultants. However, staff emphasized that the municipality must remain flexible in its decision-making processes.
“The alternative fuel sector is growing rapidly and technological advancements are taking place across the fleet industry to support the diversion from traditional fuels, like diesel and gasoline,” the staff report on the matter stated. “As such, plans to reduce town tailpipe emissions must be built with the intent to be versatile and adaptive in its approach.”
The town still has 15 years before a hard decision would need to be made with its larger vehicles, Lockhart said during the meeting, following questioning from Deputy Mayor Kenneth Fowler on potential advances in other fuel sources.
“The go/no-go kind of decision for (large fleet vehicles is 2040) but we are committing to continuing to look at the landscape of alternative fuels, keeping our ears to the ground, making sure that we know what’s up and coming and what’s becoming the emerging technology,” she said. “We’re not counting anything out at this point because we do know there are a lot of big questions.”
While 2024 is a “placeholder,” Lockhart added the town could move forward sooner if the right situation arose.
The environmental value of decarbonization is often placed at odds with the financial costs. Through its work, GHD suggested when looking at the balance between cost and emission reductions, investments in zero-emissions vehicles create greater long-term value than investments in internal combustion engine vehicles.
Still, there’s a need for non-electric vehicles in the fleet, such as snow plows and other large apparatus. To that end, GHD recommended a mix of battery electric vehicles and renewable diesel vehicles. Renewable diesel, Bhattacharjee told councillors, is similar enough to biodiesel, but it works better in cold weather and is better for overall emission reductions.
Two pathways to decarbonization were presented in the GHD report: budget focused and innovation focused.
The budget-focused pathway would “methodically” convert the existing fleet to battery electric vehicles where available technology exists. This pathway would see the town’s light-duty vehicles and equipment converted over the next 10 years, with medium- and heavy-duty vehicles converted mostly between 2035 and 2050.
With almost all vehicles converting by 2050, the town could reduce its total carbon emissions to approximately 18,600 metric tonnes, with renewable diesel being used to help further reductions. The total cost of ownership under this pathway would be $233 million, including $204 million in capital costs.
That is less than the capital costs predicted by the innovation-focused pathway. At a total of $259 million, including $234 million in capital costs, the innovation pathway would see a vehicle convert to battery electric as soon as it reaches the end of its useful life. Such moves would reduce the town’s total carbon emissions to approximately 13,200 metric tonnes.
However, the risks of the innovation-focused pathway appear too great for staff to recommend council chart that course.
“Following the innovation-focused pathway would make Innisfil a leader and first adopter of (battery electric vehicle) technology in the municipal sector, but it also requires sharp increases in investment of both capital vehicle and infrastructure costs,” the staff report stated. “Operational impacts would also be significant as staff adapted to new ways of working and managing vehicles. Additionally, levels of service may be negatively impacted by trying to use technology that is not yet ready for municipal needs, such as snow plowing or road construction. The financial and service risks inherent in this pathway make it unsuitable for adoption by the town.”
Mayor Lynn Dollin didn’t think it needed to be one or the other.
“The only thing I would have wished is that we wouldn’t have used budget versus innovation, because I think you can have budget and innovation,” Dollin said. “I like the stream that we’re going, but I think we also need to toot our horn when we do innovative things that are within the budget stream and make sure we shout those from the rooftops.”
While both pathways are substantially more expensive than the status quo, the business-as-usual option would only see the town reach 42 per cent of its Integrated Sustainability Master Plan targets. The budget-focused approach would get the town closer to 87 per cent of its goal.
That was among the main reasons for staff to recommend the budget-focused option.
“Proceeding in general alignment with the (budget-focused) pathway allows staff to steadily integrates electric vehicles into the fleet, relying on the shot-term adoption of renewable diesel and fuel-efficient retrofits to manage emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles until technology can evolve to meet the town’s needs in these vehicle types,” the staff report stated. “Planning for fleet decarbonization along this pathway would allow staff to manage the conversion to electric vehicles at a reasonable pace, would help to smooth out financial investments and would help to ensure service levels would not be impacted.”
The move has no immediate financial impact. However, it will need to be reflected in future capital planning and budget discussions.